Dracula? Anyone?

Kerr

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Hi! I've been wondering about starting a good old fashioned discussion where we dissect the author and book down to bare bones. From the looks of things most everyone's read Dracula at one point or another. With so much talk of vampires, I picked it up and started it again. What's say? Anyone else interested?

Kerr
 

maxmordon

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I finished to read it this this July, I think that no movie adaptation has gave merit to Seward. And that the style can be tiresome at the begining but you get used to
 

underthecity

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I'm open for discussion. As you may see in my signature line, I recently finished reading it. It took me months to get through. Really, it took me years. But I finished it.

allen
 

Calla Lily

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I've read it at least a dozen times. Loved almost every part of it. Including the ending (sorry, allen). Except maybe how Harker keeps maundering on about the pulchritude of the Brides. They're hot, dude, get used to it, and put on your cravat.
 

underthecity

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I can expand more on my thoughts later . . . .

I enjoyed the first third of the book with Harker's journey into Transylvania and what happened to him there. After that, I thought things got really really dull for a long time until Van Helsing finally made his appearance. The last third was interesting, although I thought the characters spent more time talking about what they were going to do rather than actually doing anything. Then finally at the end they're trying to get ahead of Dracula as he makes his way back to Transylvania, and rather than an exciting showdown at Dracula's castle, they ambush the gypsies transporting him on the path to the castle, knock over the casket, then Harker plunges a Bowie knife into Dracula's heart. A Bowie knife! Up to this point, Van Helsing said a stake had to be used. Then two paragraphs later it ends. I mean, Dracula didn't even come awake for one last attempt at self-preservation.

Sigh. I read all those pages for that ending.

Anyway, I thought there was waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy too much narrative. Every character just talks and talks and talks and doesn't say anything. Plus, even given the differences of the diary entries, all of the characters, save for Van Helsing, pretty much talked the same way, even the females.

OTHERWISE, I thought it was plotted nicely and I liked the usage of diary entries to tell the story. But it could have been half its length with a good editor.

allen
 

Kerr

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I probably read this the first time in HS. I loved it then, but (I hate to say, considering it is an old classic and all, we have taken this monster from Bram and made him rock. I have to agree with Underthecity, way too much dialog. And I can readily understand why modern writers frown on ethnic dialog. It gets very weary trying to comprehend what a character is saying. (For instance, the old man by the sea. I could hardly get a word of it, and finally was glad he was dead.)

Lucy, on the other hand, came as a great loss. I imagine at the time this was written, both sturdy Mina and ultra-feminine Lucy made the impression intended on both sexes. That is probably a good place to begin. Where the story seems to lag, Bram takes his time to map out a diagram for good and evil. His problem though, in my mind, was that the majority of people at that time were of like minds, making it hard to differentiate between characters--at least in his crowd.

But, Bram Stoker probably did in his time something that was a first. He gave everyone a hell of a good scare. So much so, that it has been passed down.
 

blacbird

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Read it earlier this year. Loved it.

Read it some years ago. Hated it.

Which probably says a lot about the kind of responses you'll get. My primary difficulty is Stoker's writing style, which drifts over the border of atrocious. I've attempted a couple of his other novels and read three or four of his short stories, and none have done anything to alter my opinion.

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Read it earlier this year. Loved it.

No reason to quote seun, but I wanted to give him a boner by doing so. :D

Ahem. Anyway.

I first read Dracula when I was seven, then again when I was twenty-seven. The longest gap between first- and second-readings of any book in my life!

The first reading was entertaining but I felt it dragged on a bit, especially the ending, which disappointed me. Then twenty years later my (step)dad bought me my own copy. Despite loving vampire novels, this was one I didn't have! I read it again and the years fell away; I felt exactly the same about the book and realised this, this was the novel that sparked off my love of vampire lore/novels/films.

It might seem cheesy and cliched now, to us who have the benefit of hindsight and a huge Anne Rice et al catalogue to compare it to, but at the time it was original enough.

To my mind, Freda Warrington's trilogy A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance in Blood Velvet and The Dark Blood of Poppies are the best vampire novels out there...maybe I'll have one published some day, once I can think of a new twist to the genre. My first completed novel - trunk novel - was a load of vampirey teen angst. 150,000 words of it. No, I didn't have a social life then. Nor do I now. :D
 

L'Oiseau Noir

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I'm a huge fan of Bram Stoker--he was another one of the inspirations for my current novel project. The way Stoker described Transylvania was intense, as well as vivid, and really sucked me into the story. I especially enjoyed the parts Jonathan was locked inside the castle by Dracula as a prisoner. However, the parts I found most interesting were, for one example, where Dracula summoned a pack of wolves to kill the woman who'd come to his castle, begging for the return of her son. In general, I enjoyed all the parts Stoker showed Dracula's vampiric side. I actually laughed at the part the count had seen the drop of blood on Jonathan's cheek (he was shaving), and nearly lunged at the poor fellow to consume it. And Renfield was hilarious, especially when he would go into his made ravings about his master--or when he would eat a couple of spiders, or insects, much to Dr. Seward's dismay.

Funnily enough though, the Count wasn't even my favorite character. He was a cool character, don't get me wrong, but for some reason I enjoyed Lucy Westenra the most (I still chuckle every time I hear or think about her nickname, the "bloofer" lady). It upset me when she was bitten by Dracula, and in the end Dr. Hellsing had had Seward kill her (I believe it was Seward, but I don't clearly remember). But I suppose it was all for the better, considering Lucy would have continued draining all the children of Whitby's blood.

The only things I didn't particularly enjoy about this novel though, were the long, long, long, long blocky paragraphs of dialog between Mina and Dr. Hellsing, or any character for the matter. A lot of it contained unnecessary information that really didn't move the plot too much (something I'm terribly guilty of) and succeeded in boring me half-to-death. However, once Jonathan returned to England, the plot picked up, especially when they began hunting down the count. Then I couldn't put it down.


 

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I just finished Dracula a few weeks ago; it seemed to take forever to finish. I kept reading mainly to see if it was going to change from the journaling format.

I really enjoyed the first part, where Harker was in Transylvania. After that it pretty much went down hill for me.

I've read a lot of vampire books, admittedly mostly romance, and I think what surprises me most is how Dracula ever became such a romantic figure!

The Gutenberg site is a great place for free reading. I got there a lot when I'm on the night shift and it's quiet.
 

maxmordon

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Does anyone would write in their dairy knowing that your mother has just died, there is an evil wolf in the house and the maids have been drugged?

These kind of things kinda ruined the book to me
 

Kerr

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To my mind, Freda Warrington's trilogy A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance in Blood Velvet and The Dark Blood of Poppies are the best vampire novels out there...maybe I'll have one published some day, once I can think of a new twist to the genre. My first completed novel - trunk novel - was a load of vampirey teen angst. 150,000 words of it. No, I didn't have a social life then. Nor do I now. :D

Thanks Scarlet, never read these and am always on the hunt for new lore. I have to say, vampires are the ultimate beasties. They seem to set off the imagination with the idea that you can escape aging and death as long as you can outrun those jealous folks with sharp sticks.

Is it only my imagination, or since Stoker's Dracula have vampires seemed to become more insatiable with their hunger? I mean, it seemed to take forever for Lucy to die. Of course, they were pumping blood back in as fast as they were able, at that time, LOL. In today's age of transfusion, we'd likely keep her going indefinitely. But today's suckers want to drain at least one body a night. I figure the Count was probably ultra-conservative after his long lifetimes on the lonely mountain. You do wonder how far he would have to run as a wolf, or fly as a bat, to return carrying that baby for the girls. And he was so wasting before moving to London.

Or you wonder if there was perhaps a contract of some kind between himself and the evil gypsies. Were they helping keep the folks in the castle supplied. Rather like ancient tribes sacrificing members of the group to the volcano gods, etc.

As for the journal writing, this was common practice at the time, and I'm sure easily excepted by those readers. Consider all the ladies today scrap-booking. What if you opened one of them and found all the pictures of the lady's husband missing the head. LOL I'm sure you'd forgo critique in favor of listening to what the lady might be saying.

At any rate, Dracula, is, and remains the original inspiration for this particular monster, one that set off the imagination of the entire world at that time and continues to fuel the fire today. As a whole, the book has problems, but taken apart, its moments of brilliance are what put it where it is.
 

LloydBrown

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Read it first in 7th grade around '81. I loved it. I was lucky enough to find Leonard's Wolf's Annotated Dracula, which is the only version I've read since then. The first year or two I probably read it a half-dozen times.
 

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"Dracula" by Bram Stoker

I have to say, I was excited by Bram Stoker's "Dracula" from the first page. The style is gripping, with all the newspaper clippings and journal entries, and only knowing what our characters know while reading those entries. It's a lovely style that I'm surprised I don't see more of, at least with paranormal fiction if not fiction as a whole. The characters were wonderful, especially Mina Harker. She was a joy to read.

I thought the ending was a bit anti-climactic though. I think I was expecting a bit more, but that's all right. My favorite part was definitely the beginning. Jonathan Harker is as scared as we, the readers, are, when he sees Dracula climbing face down out a window, or when he sees the beautiful women in the moonlight. The mysteries are abounding, and I love that touch. It's a special Victorian touch that I think just makes the novel shine.

Has anyone else read "Dracula"? If so, what did you think? Did you like Mina? Van Helsing?

p.s. I feel so bad for poor Jonathan Harker. Poor baby, he has anxiety now.
 

Maryn

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I read it when the Coppola movie adaptation came out. (It was pretty to see but overall not very good.) That was some time ago, of course, and I'm afraid I don't remember the novel very well.

What I do remember is that I read it as one of a large group of Keanu fans. (No point in noting his thespian abilities. That's not why I like him.) They were all adult women and many could not figure out what was going on in the book. About half quit reading despite an agreement to read and discuss. I presumed they had not read a book written that long ago before, and that the elegant prose that didn't try to be especially short-and-tight like the present style was a bit beyond their abilities.

Of course, I didn't say so. I just read it and felt kind of smug.

Maryn, not very nice inside her own head
 

Justobuddies

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I'm not a huge fan of the multi-POV epistolary form that had it's heyday back in the turn of the 20th century. That said, I think Stoker's was the only one I ever managed to get all the way through.

I don't know that it would work in a contemporary setting, since so much of our media has left the medium of being written. Newspaper articles could be used, but the personal narrative would be tough since most people don't journal any longer. I suppose you could include tweets for the personal narrative, but would be hard to pull of something coherent.

As far as characters I always like Van Helsing, admittedly, some of that may come from him being portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the film. I also saw the Coppola film first and then read the book.